STATE-AID

The FSR extends the Commission’s powers so that it can investigate subsidies granted by non-EU states to undertakings operating in the EU. Sarah Bond, Rob Jones and Gabrielle Van der Haegen (Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer) explain the operation and implications of this regime.

In this month’s review, Mike Lane and Zoe Andrews (Slaughter and May) consider HMRC’s updated unallowable purpose guidance, an advocate general opinion on state aid challenges to tax rulings and an Upper Tribunal case which raises some interesting points on distributions and procedural fairness.

Recent developments that matter from around the globe, reported by Tim Sarson (KPMG).

This judgment deals a blow to the European Commission’s state aid investigations concerning tax rulings on transfer pricing, writes Pierre-Antoine Klethi and Peter Adriaansen (Loyens & Loeff).

Did the General Court place too much emphasis on legislative technique and too little on substance and effect? Simon Whitehead (Joseph Hage Aaronson) critiques the state aid decision in UK and ITV v Commission.

Paul Farmer and Simon Whitehead (Joseph Hage Aaronson) consider how fiscal state aid issues should be addressed where the national tax provisions creating the aid are not based on a simple exemption from a standard rate but arise from differential rate regimes and asymmetric taxes. 

The General Court’s recent state aid decision and the Energy Profits Levy Bill are among the developments examined by Mike Lane and Zoe Andrews (Slaughter and May).